A homecoming, a wedding, and a bowlathon

Three months in three words: homecoming, wedding, bowlathon. Pretty exciting eh?

My younger brother Stephen came home from his mission in Fresno California on February 9th. It was so exciting! So much has happened since he left two years ago (including me and Danny getting married) so it is so fun to have him back home. It was also really fun to see Russell's reaction. Russell looks up to Stephen so much and has missed him from day one. The week after Stephen left Russell was leaving "Welcome home!" messages in Stephen's room. This is a picture of Russell's face (pretty much all day) he couldn't stop giggling. (sorry its blurry)

When Stephen came down the elevator Russell ran up to him and gave him a big hug and then started crying. It was really sweet.

Another really sweet thing for me that day was getting to introduce Danny to Stephen as my husband. Stephen knew Danny before he went on his mission and has been telling me for years to marry him. So it wasn't really anything to crazy but it was really neat to see how well Danny and Stephen get along. Stephen said to Danny at one point, "I'm really glad you married my sister." That means a lot to me. Also Stephen wanted to go talk to a few of the inactive members in our ward before he was released and Danny went as his companion. Two of my favorite people out tracting together. Awesome.

Second big thing is that my best friend Amanda got married on March 11. It was so great.

I always love going to weddings, such a happy day.

Temples are amazing. It's also always so great to see all my friends that I never get to see anymore.

I love those girls (and their husbands).

Third thing, not really such a big deal, (but still fun) is that Danny and I participated in the Zions bank bowlathon.

The big news is that I beat him in one of our games! I took a picture to document the moment.

Danny and I have only been bowling together on our wedding day so it was fun to go bowling together again. Also, rumor has it that I had the highest women's score. Just goes to show us bank tellers aren't great bowlers.

Navidad y otras actividades

So I feel like I am just going to dump a lot of pictures and random stories on you right here, but a lot has happened during the holidays so I'm going to play catchup. My favorite thing about the holidays is getting to be with friends and family, and especially those who we don't get to see other times of the year.

It all started with the Christmas party with with my roommates from freshman year:

I love getting together with these girls, I really got so lucky with the roommates I had my first year here. We don't get to see each other very often but when we do it is as though no time has passed. We eat, laugh, watch some Gilmore girls, and catch up on the boys (not as exciting now that most of us are married), and laugh some more. These girls are awesome. This year we did a "favorite things" theme where we each gave each other one of our favorite things. So naturally, I gave each of the girls a live goldfish. None of which are still alive.

We also had dinner and played games with our friends Alyssa and Jake. This is not an unusual event but this night we had an epic game of Jenga. Here is documentation:

So the tower is no so huge here but check out Danny's face. We laughed so hard.

This is the tower at its highest point. There was literally not a single block that could be taken out so Danny completely moved the tower to one side.

I consequently lost the game the next turn.

Next up was our Christmas get together with my friends from high school. This is another group of incredible girls. Always a pleasure. And of course the typical normal and crazy face pictures (just for the record I thought BOTH of them were crazy face pictures, my smile is not usually that weird).

And then of course there is the real deal of Christmas. The sad news is that as Danny and I were having our Christmas I went to take a picture and my camera died. My charger is lost somewhere between Logan, Utah and Raleigh, North Carolina. So I didn't get any pictures of our Christmas, or the Fonseca Christmas. But thanks to my sister-in-law and her handy dandy charger I did get a few of the Taylor family Christmas. It was so great to have so much of my family there. Everyone lives so far away so I don't get to see the nieces and nephews very often. We have a blast together. (I guess I didn't get any pictures with Samantha, Collin, and Owen but I have a blast with them too!)

This is one of the shirts I made for all the nephews for Christmas. To give credit where credit is due, the idea came from one of my favorite blogs, I Am Momma Hear Me Roar.

Here is a picture I snapped a few days later before Danny and I took our Christmas tree down. It is the only one that even resembles our little Christmas (sorry I'm always in gross sweats). Feliz Navidad!

High School Dance

You heard me. Danny and I went to the Viewmont high school Christmas dance a few weeks ago, and we (and by we I mean mostly I) had a blast. Russell got asked to go by a girl from school and Danny and I went as their chaperones. Here are a few pictures from the experience:

A few of my favorite things about the experience:

-I decided to "ask" Danny to the dance like all the high schoolers do. I did it all tricky though so I was home pretending ot be asleep when it was all delivered. I just had a bunch of balloons with notes inside of them (one with my name on it) and a sign that said, "Don't burst by bubble, go to the Christmas dance with me." To make a long story short, he thought it was one of our friends playing a joke on us and had no idea it was from me, so he wanted me to pop the balloons. I finally got him to pop the balloons and he was so confused when he saw my name. Needless to say, it didn't go as planned. I was laughing pretty hard though.

-Watching Russell dance. He has no inhibitions and it is awesome. We should all be more like that.

-Russell and his date both voted that I was a better dance than Danny :) Although I gotta admit, Danny has some sweet moves!

-If you want more details and you follow Russells's blog, go here for more: Gafugamugabub.

ONE YEAR!

We made it. haha. Danny and I have been married for one year, as of yesterday. They say that the first year is the hardest, and although last year was pretty tough at times, if thats as bad as it gets I'll take it! I love being married to Danny, I don't want to be cheesy but I really am so grateful to be married to him. Every day I realize he is even more perfect for me than I could have known. I'm a pretty lucky girl.

So because of school and budget we didn't get to do anything too exciting for our anniversary (we REALLY wanted to go on a cruise), but we did get out of Logan. My parents were out of town so we went and house sat for them and did a few fun things in Salt Lake. On our honeymoon we went to the Desert Star Theater so we went again this year as tradition. This is us before the show. We LOVE the Desert Star theater, it is always a good laugh.

I asked Danny to give me the Harry Potter movies for my anniversary present ($33 for all six at Costco-Thanks for the tip Michele) so we had a little Harry Potter marathon and then went to see the new movie.

It was awesome! And I found out that I totally married a Harry Potter nerd. If you ever have a question about the logistics of Harry Potter, Danny knows the answer.

We really just had a relaxing weekend away from work and school and got to spend some quality time together.

We had to go back to Logan on Sunday (our real anniversary) for church but after church we ate the top of our wedding cake and watched our wedding video (Thank you Julianne and Nathan!) This is us reenacting cutting the cake at the reception. We are both a few pounds heavier, in our pajamas/snuggies, and this is the worst picture ever but I think it makes it even funnier)

It was great to reminisce on the wedding day and how wonderful it was. It all went by so fast but looking back I am so grateful to have so many incredible friends and family that were there to celebrate with us that day. So thank you! Here's to many more wonderful years to come!

Fall is Fantastic

I love fall. There is something about the crisp leaves, bright colors and cool air that just makes me happy. These are a few of the activities that also make me happy.

My sister Julianne came into town for her friend's wedding, so that means we got to hang out. And she brought Addison! This is a picture of Addy me and my mom at Gardner's Village. We had a lot of fun hanging out and staying up late talking.

Carving Pumpkins. One of my favorite Halloween activities. I think ours turned out pretty good this year thanks to Danny's artistic abilities. The

picture is a little crazy of me but little did I know Danny wanted to be normal and smile.

Costumes. Especially this little guy in one. This is Danny's nephew Xander, and if he wasn't cute enough already he is the cutest little chinese man I've ever seen.

Gufubamugabub

I started another blog! As mentioned in the earlier post "Criminal Mastermind," my little brother Russell is hilarious. So I started a blog about it. (Gufubamugabub is what my dad calls him, and also the name of the blog) It's private but if you would like to read it let me know and I will add you. Ok thanks.

Update

I was looking over our blog just barely cuz I'm bored at work and I noticed that I haven't really given an update on what Danny and I are doing with our lives lately. Sorry about the lack of pictures, I am a major slacker but I found two off the internet for your viewing enjoyment. So here it goes.

Danny is back in school, full time, and working on campus as a "computer lab consultant." Which really translates into doing his homework and getting paid for it! He is also playing on the Utah State Mens soccer team and is really excited for this season. The team has a lot of great players on it and are doing really well. They won last weeks game 7-1!

Just a side note: last week my little brother Russell (the criminal in a previous post) came to stay with us and needless to say we had a blast. Anyway, one of my favorite comments came from him when we were watching Danny's soccer game. We had only been there for twenty minutes and he got really bored and layed down with his head in his arms. He turned to me and said, "Marissa, why does Danny even like soccer anyway?!" haha. Leave it to Russell to say it like it is.

As for me, I am back to working full time and bringing home the bacon! I decided not to go to grad school yet because after fasting and praying about it Danny and I decided it was not the best move for us right now. So I got a job at USU Charter Credit Union full time as a teller (really using my college degree right?) and am loving not having school.

I have currently appointed our spare bedroom as my craft room and am putting it to full use. I will try and post a few of my favorite creations soon. I am taking a spanish class through the city so hopefully I will be bilingual soon. Also, I am trying to learn how to be a better cook so if any of you have good recipes please let me know, I want to try them!

I think that is all that is going on for us right now. We finally feel settled in our new apartment and are excited to be living in the same place for at least a year!